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Gardening for Amateurs 



The gay Gaillardia the blooms are chiefly red and yellow. 



may reach 2 feet high. Funkias thrive in 

 most soils, though to see the plants in their 

 full beauty of foliage and flower plant them 

 in deeply dug and manured ground. It is 

 usually necessary to lift and divide the 

 clumps evdry three or four years, as they 

 increase rapidly in size. This may be done 

 in autumn or spring, the latter for preference. 

 Each clump may, as a rule, be safely divided 

 into four, and replanted out of doors. To 

 increase the plants rapidly it is best to divide 

 the clumps into single crowns or rooted 

 pieces, and pot each one separately in a small 

 pot. If placed in a slightly heated green- 

 house, or, failing this, a cold frame, it is 

 possible to obtain as many as twenty-five 

 plants from a single clump. 



A selection of Funkias should include : 

 Fortunei, lilac-grey flowers in August, bold 

 grey-green foliage ; ovata, spikes of lilac 



flowers in August, deep glau- 

 cous green foliage, var. mar- 

 ginata, leaves edged white, 

 var. aureo-variegata, varie- 

 gated gold and silver leaves ; 

 Sieboldii, lilac flowers in June 

 and July, large bluish -green 

 leaves, var. variegata, leaves 

 marked with white ; F. sub- 

 cordata grandiflora, the Corfu 

 Lily, mauve, white tinted 

 flowers in August, broad, pale 

 green leaves ; F. tardiflora, 

 a valuable autumn Plantain 

 Lily, flowering from Septem- 

 ber to November, it has 

 dark green leaves and lilac- 

 purple flowers. Plant in a 

 sheltered position in case of 

 unfavourable weather at this 

 season. F. undulata argentea 

 is perhaps the best of all 

 the variegated leaved sorts, 

 a large proportion of each 

 leaf being creamy white. 

 Funkias are useful for pots 

 in the cold greenhouse. 



Gaillardia (Blanket 

 Flower). The beautiful 

 perennial Gaillardias, flower- 

 ing from June to September, 

 are among the most valuable 

 of border flowers ; the blooms 

 are borne on long stalks, and are excellent 

 for cutting, lasting well in water. They 

 make very showy beds on the lawn or small 

 groups in the herbaceous border, while to 

 provide masses of colour, and incidentally 

 to supply numbers of flowers for cutting, 

 seedlings should be planted in quantity 

 when space allows. The roots of Gaillardias 

 are not long-lived in cold, wet soil, the 

 named varieties especially being liable to 

 perish in winter, but seedlings treated as 

 biennials make a good show. Choose for 

 the named sorts a rather light, warm, and 

 well-drained soil, where they will survive 

 the winter. The named varieties are pro- 

 pagated from cuttings inserted in autumn, 

 using sandy soil, and placing them in a 

 cold frame with the Calceolarias and Pent- 

 stemons, or the roots may be lifted and 

 divided in March. Seeds should be sown on 



